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Curbed: Denver, Colorado Is Getting its Own ‘Smart City’

The neighborhood will serve as a testing ground for new smart home technologies.

There’s a new type of city in development in Denver, Colorado. Developers are breaking ground on Peña Station Next this spring, which is set to be a futuristic neighborhood.

The “smart city’s” site was chosen by Panasonic, the city’s partner in the development project. It will serve as testing grounds for self-driving vehicles, solar power and other smart home technology. The area is already equipped with 53 intelligent LED streetlights and a parking lot that’s covered in solar panels, with a self-driving shuttle scheduled to arrive by the end of the month. And once it’s up and running, the project will be monitored by a sensor system that tracks air pollution, cloud cover, humidity, noise and temperature.

Construction on Peña Station Next is scheduled to being in March. The 400-acre area is expected to have an economic impact of $82 billion in a year.